Learning empathy through virtual reality

1of 8Attendees and exhibitors at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

2of 8Matthew Noyas tries out the Daqri Smart Helmet at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

3of 8Exhibitor Rajay Kumar demonstrates how to use the Daqri Smart Helmet at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

4of 8Dereck Orr tries out the Daqri Smart Helmet at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

5of 8Veronica Luccioni tries out theVR Cruise, a 360 degree VR portal at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

6of 8Attendees try out video game VR at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

7of 8Paul Williams tries out MyDream Interactive VR which allows the user to pickup and move furniture at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

8of 8Matthew Cherian tries out theVR Cruise, a 360 degree VR portal at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

Wearing a virtual reality headset can feel awkward. But as people attending the Virtual Reality Developers Conference in San Francisco learned this week, sometimes that can be an advantage.

For example, it was perfect for teaching health professionals empathy for people afflicted with Parkinson’s disease by making them experience how hard a simple trip to the grocery store might be, said Bart Kok, studio manager for VR content developer Virtual Dutch Men.

“The first thing people think when I put on a headset is that I look silly,” Kok said during a panel discussion on creating virtual and augmented reality for health care. The funny-looking headsets, together with the virtual experience, help people understand the challenges of someone with the disease, he said. “We wanted to make that feeling stronger.”

About 700 people attended the two-day conference at the Park Central Hotel to learn more about ways the fledgling medium can expand in the near future. The conference convened this year as part of the annual Game Developers Conference in March at Moscone Center in San Francisco, but a stand-alone conference was organized for the first time because of the growing interest in VR.

This year saw the release of the first consumer-oriented generation of virtual reality headsets, which is igniting a flurry of development among video game and documentary makers. The maker of one headset, the HTC Vive, launched a program to encourage arcade operators to include virtual reality games and devices.

However, conference exhibitors also showed off a variety of other headsets, including the Fove, a $599 headset that unlike its competitors includes technology that precisely tracks the movement of a wearer’s eyes. In one demonstration game, the wearer shoots down targets just by looking at them.

Another device was the Daqri Smart Helmet, a Wi-Fi-enabled safety helmet being developed for industrial use that includes a thermal camera, an Intel processor and a heads-up display visor that can show, for example, how to fix a piece of machinery or whether a pipe is failing. The Los Angeles company displayed a $15,000 developer edition of the helmet.

(Front to back) Brett Branch, Jason Schugardt, and JMatthew Noyas throw and block fireballs as they try out a VR system running on Intel Corei7 at the Virtual Reality Developers Conference on Thursday, Oct 3, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Amy Osborne, Special To The Chronicle

Meanwhile, My Dream Interactive of Palo Alto has developed Light VR, a program that creates a virtual work space. In one demonstration, a headset wearer opens several computer desktop windows at a time, including those with video and messaging programs, inside a room that seems to be floating in space.

Albert Palacios, a specialist with the Department of Education, issued a challenge to developers to create more virtual and augmented reality programs for teachers and students. Palacios announced a contest offering $680,000 in prizes, with a Jan. 17 deadline.

“We want to challenge the VR developer community to come up with creative approaches to deliver effective education content,” Palacios told the crowd.

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VR can also help educate doctors and other health care workers about what it’s like to be one of their patients, Kok said during his panel. The Parkinson’s experience his company created for a pharmaceutical firm included a visit to a grocery store that was impeded by blurry vision and shaking hands.

But the experience also showed the scene slowing down or freezing, while other shoppers try to step around or shout insults like “you freak.”

“You’re fully aware, but you can’t do anything,” Kok said. “It’s an interesting way to present this disease, to get them into their shoes.”